


Other Side of the Wall

by ehenderson2461



Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Clairvoyance, F/M, Ghosts, PLEASE I LOVE THEM, i wrote this and it made me cry, these are my babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2020-05-14 08:58:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19269979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ehenderson2461/pseuds/ehenderson2461





	1. Sunset on the Tenement

The year is 2005; grunge music and the internet have hit a peak. Annie Decoudreaux, a university graduate who lived in Brooklyn, New York is walking down apartment row back to her aunt’s place. She hated how she could never just tune out the ghasts and the sound of the subway at night. Being a clairvoyant had its ups and downs, but walking through the gang-torn town where murder wasn’t too uncommon while trying to ignore everyone talking to her was a bit of a challenge. Annie’s parents weren’t the best people and she left for her aunt’s place when she was only eight; having no real siblings or family her age to rely on made her a bit of a recluse to say the least. This proved to be her undoing as she learned all too soon that this was no place to walk around by herself. Annie was ten when she had her first NDE, near-death experience that is, and 12 when she had the second one. The first: a stray bullet right through her left shoulder missed all the important parts, but did give her enough shock to make her start hearing things. The second: it was winter, and slipping on the ice three blocks out form where she needed to be wasn’t her greatest moment to date. Annie woke up a week later in the hospital with a lot of stitches and stunning, 4K HD ghasts equipped with audio surround-sound. She had full-on visions and constant contact with the ghasts, the ones stuck in the in-between place where souls just hang around until they figure it out. They walk and wait and annoy the Hell out of her by talking endlessly and giving her visions. Annie was pretty sure that she was going to get melatonin poisoning by all the sleep-aids she had been taking for so long. They used to really trip her out, but she learned that they couldn’t hurt her and that they were pretty easy to tune out with good headphones. She was twenty-five now and she had a job teaching at one of the local schools, making her aunt very proud of her, but she couldn’t help feeling like something was missing.  
“Welcome home, Annie. How was school?”  
Annie smiled up at her aunt Emory who was sitting quietly on the porch, leaning out of her chair to open the front door of the two-story tenement house for them.  
“It went pretty well, kinda loud on the H train today what with all the jumpers on that side of town, but I didn’t have to wade through nasty since the rain stopped.”  
“Well, you can’t blame them for their own misfortune. Let’s go in, it looks rainy today.”  
Emory ushered her inside and Annie placed her bag beside the staircase, glancing up to her room where a faint, blue-ish light shown from under her door. She shook her head a bit and started the electric kettle, sitting down at the table next to Emory and putting a hand around the back of her chair.  
“So, what have you been up to today?”  
Emory scoffed into her cup and set it aside, pointing to the upstairs and raising an eyebrow,  
“Nothing too much, just listening to May tear up your room and watching the sky change colours.”  
Annie ran a hand over her face and groaned aloud,  
“Good grief, he’s such a titbag. I’ll go talk to him later.”  
Her aunt nodded and sipped on her coffee, handing Annie a mug for her tea. She gave her a peck on the cheek as she poured her tea, grabbing her bag and slowly going up the stairs to her room. The door was freezing and stuck a little bit so she had to bust in a little bit. Annie grit her teeth as she stepped into her freezer of a room, throwing a blanket around her shoulders and sat up on her bed. There were clothes strewn about her bedroom floor and the windows here thrown open, classic behaviour from her own personal poltergeist Mason Whele. She leaned back onto her bed and looked around a bit before speaking into the space quietly.  
“I can feel you Mason, you know I hate it when you lurk.”  
A lithe figure phased through her bureau, looking over at her with his hands in his pockets, cocking his head to the side before answering her snidely,  
“I’m sure you do, but that’s all I can really do nowadays, isn’t it?”  
Annie rolled her eyes and stared up at the ceiling.  
“You don’t have to get sour with me, I wasn’t the one who got caught in a cross-fire.”  
“Yeah, and here I am, dead as a doornail and you there living and trying to ignore me.”  
Annie scoffed and looked over at him now seated on the end of her bed near her feet.  
“Can you blame me for it? You only got meaner when you died, and all I’ve done is try to help you cross over.”  
Mason narrowed his eyes at her and smiled crossly,  
“And who said I had any intentions of crossing over? I got pumped full of lead and purgatory is the thanks I get. I want some revenge.”  
Her brow furrowed as she raised up on her headboard to face him fully.  
“What does that mean?”  
Mason crawled towards her with cat-like delicacy as the lights in her room flickered gently.  
“I said I wanted revenge and I meant it. You may never have been there for me, but at least I was there for you.”  
He knew exactly how much that hurt her.  
“Mason, please-”  
He waved her off and rolled his pale eyes,  
“Oh please what, you’re just as guilty as the people who killed me.”  
“How’s that?”  
Mason looked her dead in the face as the air around her grew even colder with his anger,  
“You know exactly how; all I needed was to not go out that night and not go past that house, and you just couldn’t pick up the phone.”  
“You know that Emory’s power lines were down that night.”  
He looked at her now backed against the wall and scoffed at her,  
“Tch, how pitiful, couldn’t be bothered to borrow a cellphone from anyone to check on your best friend.”  
“None of us have one on the block, Mason, what was I supposed to do?”  
His voice was at a fever pitch now, but the rasp in his voice still cut her deeply,  
“MY Annie was supposed to be there for me, but no, too busy I guess.”  
Annie wrapped her arms around herself and drew down into her pillows, eyes down and trembling.  
“I wanted to die when I heard the news May, but I couldn’t go to you like I wanted to, seeing you in pieces like that wouldn’t have made it better.”  
Mason pressed his face into the crook of her neck and whispered coldly to her,  
“Maybe if you did come see me that day, I wouldn’t have died like that, ever think of that?”  
She could feel her frustration mounting as her eyes began to water,  
“I have, over and over and over again I’ve thought about it and what I could’ve done different. I can’t do anything for you now.”  
He stands and looks down at her, something like disgust on his face.  
“You haven’t even begun to try and help me, and maybe you never will, but I wish you could.”  
It was so quiet in the room you could’ve heard a pin drop downstairs. Mason sighed in resignation as he ran a hand through his hair and across his face.  
“I wanted to stay here, I didn’t wanna go, but here were are, orphan.”  
Annie rolls her eyes at the nickname he used to call her and holds her head in her hands.  
“Yep, here we are...what is it you want, Mason?”  
Mason looks around her room and then to the stairs, beginning to walk out slowly as he spoke,  
“I said it before, I want revenge. I want to not be so angry all the time. I...I wanna breathe and touch your hair again and laugh like I used to.”  
Annie was quiet as she turned to look at him, eyes pleading a bit,  
“Then let me help you, Mason, I want to help.”  
He nodded and looked back at her with tight lips and a sad expression.  
“I know you do, but you don’t even know where to begin, you’ve got a map and no end.”  
She watched him walk down the stairs as the lights in her room drew up to normal. Annie sat back on her headboard and looked at her once hot cup of tea that was now frosty around the edges, sighing and shaking her head.  
“Then I’ll make an end...good night, Mason.”  
Annie turned over in her bed and drew the covers up around her quaking form, trying to steady her heartbeat. The Mason she knew was gone for the most part and this was an angry, vengeful soul who was lost in the veil without a way out. Displaced spirits, ghasts as she called them, were her area, but she sincerely wished she didn’t have to deal with them 24/7. Especially since it dealt with someone near to her heart. She didn’t want to see him suffer, but she didn’t know how to help or where to begin. Annie reached into her bedside drawer and took out her melatonin, taking a couple and resting her head on the pillow. She decided to deal with it tomorrow, very unlike her, but this wasn’t something that could be solved without sleep. She promised herself that her and Mason’s pain wasn’t going to last for much longer, she promised.


	2. Living With Your Demons

Annie’s alarm went off, shrill and harsh as the sun broke through the shutters of her bedroom window. She smacked the snooze button and cursed herself for setting an alarm on a Saturday when she very well could’ve slept a little longer. Rolling over, she decided that if she was awake she could at least make good use of it. Annie got up and opened her dresser, picking out a comfy outfit and throwing it towards the ottoman in front of her vanity. She looked over at her record player and smiled fondly, turning it on and putting the needle down, Pink Floyd playing quietly as she went over to her vanity. That record player used to be Mason’s before he passed, entertaining them for countless nights of studying, goofing off, and the occasional kinda-date. Annie cursed her hair as she untangled it gently, braiding it to the side of her face and humming along to the song playing. She unlatched the window and pushed it open, letting the sunshine in and relishing in the warmth of the new day. As she reached for her clothes, a whoosh of air went past her and they moved to her bedpost. Annie rolled her eyes and tipped her head back, smiling to herself as she looked around the room a bit, a wry smile forming as she looked into the mirror.  
“Listen here you pest, I need those to not be a danger to society.”  
A rumbly laugh sounded from behind her as Mason’s face appeared in the mirror with hers.  
“I can’t help but be a little bit of a poltergeist towards you, you know, being stuck in purgatory and what not.”  
She got up and snatched her clothes off of the bed, pointing and raising an eyebrow.  
“You don’t have to be a jerk, it’s just who you are. Now, turn and face the other way so I can change.”  
Mason laughed and closed his eyes, turning away from her as she changed into her day clothes.  
“Come on, I’m dead, cut a guy a break here.”  
Annie laughed at him and shook her head, slipping on her hoodie and sitting back down in front of the mirror as Mason hovered behind her left shoulder.  
“You might be dead, but you’re still ridiculous, I swear.”  
He nodded and smiled gently as she wiped her face off with a makeup cloth, moisturising after and watching him try and thread his fingers through her hair. Mason drew his lips in and cocked his mouth to one side, breathing out coldly as Annie looked back at him.  
“You can try that as much as you want, you know you can’t touch me anymore.”  
He nodded,  
“Yeah yeah, I know I can’t, but I’ll be damned if I don’t try a couple more times.”  
Annie smiled sadly and turned to face his partially transparent form, a pained expression crossing over his features that was all too life-like to make her comfortable. She hummed along to the music playing and leaned down to look at him squarely, singing quietly and watching him,  
“Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze?”  
Mason rolled his eyes as she stood and sat up on the tabletop of her vanity as he sang along with her,  
“Cold comfort for change? Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”  
Annie closed her eyes and played the air drums as he laughed at her quietly.  
“How I wish, how I wish you were here. We're just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year.”  
Mason watched her and leaned his elbows beside her knees, talking quietly as the music and the subway white noise continued quietly in the background,  
“You have no idea how much I wish I could dance with you again. It sucks that I can watch all this good-ass music come out from David Gilmour and David Bowie, but I can’t even dance to it with my girl.”  
Annie nodded and watched him as he reached a hand out to touch her, retracting his hand slowly as an afterthought.  
“Hey, sad sack, you can still dance with me if you want to.”  
He shook his head and looked up at her, standing to face her.  
“Possession isn’t the way to go, you remember how hard it knocked me on my ass the first time around, and that was on accident.”  
“Exactly, the first one was an accident. I’ve read up and dealt with it and I think I could pull it off.”  
Mason looked at her squarely as he drew closer to her, cold and intangible, fingers gliding past her cheek.  
“Maybe, but I don’t want you to get hurt.”  
Annie scoffed and looked at him, smiling with something resembling confidence.  
“I won’t, trust me.”  
Mason smiled like he used to, a crack of humanity showing around the ghostly melancholy he always seemed to wear. Annie held out her hand to him as an offer as she spoke,  
“Wanna visit me?”  
He looked down a bit and turned around, his form melding with hers and a powerful cold washing over her body. An invisible force tugged at her spine as she breathed slowly, feeling her brain “wobble” to accommodate the two people now inside her. She focused her eyes as he slowly became solid in front of her, colour flushing his cheeks and his eyes clearing out to a strong chestnut brown instead of the pale blue they were previously. Mason looked himself over and back up at her, reaching a hand out and touching her cheek softly. Though it was only her mind’s projection of what touch used to be with him, Annie felt comforted in a way that she hadn’t thought she could feel again. She turned her face into his hand and held it there, kissing his palm gently and smiling up at him. He watched her with a soft look in his eyes, pulling her into his arms quickly and holding her tightly to him, resting his chin on top of her head. Annie closed her eyes and breathed him in, her mind filling in the blanks with whatever it could remember about him; the swell of his chest as he breathed, the soft rustle of his shirt against her ear, the chip in his tooth from a high school injury, everything he never thought about. Everything she noticed about him right off the bat. Annie pulled away from him a bit and put a hand on his cheek, running her hand through the soft hair at the base of his neck and giggling that it was still too long in places, even in the afterlife. Mason sighed and watched her with intent, placing a kiss against her forehead and brushing a stray bang behind her ear smoothly.  
“You remember the time you totally didn’t give me a black eye when we were play fighting?”  
Annie laughed into his chest and slapped his arm,  
“I didn’t mean to May, you know that.”  
He nodded and his chest shook as he laughed with her, finger curling around the end of her braid.  
“I know you didn’t, I just love giving you Hell for it because you get flustered.”  
She rolled her eyes at him and settled back onto the ottoman, his arms wrapping around her waist as she did her makeup a bit. Annie hated that this couldn’t go on for much longer, this could only last for so long before she lost grip. That was the downside to possession; once you go into sharing a mind with any entity, you only have so long before your mind can’t decide what’s real and what’s not, and then it’s permanent. So, she set a ten minute bar for herself so that she wouldn’t have to worry too much about all that.  
“How did you figure out what was safe and what wasn’t?”  
“I read books, imagine that.”  
Mason squeezed her hips and laughed when she jumped, holding her tighter and watching her put her mascara on,  
“I don’t need any sass from you.”  
Annie nodded and smiled wide,  
“Yeah you do, you need all this to catch up on what you’ve been missing out on.”  
Mason rolled his eyes and kissed her shoulder, moving her tank strap down and out of his way, humming quietly in reply. Annie raised up a bit and cursed the blush running across her neck and chest, looking over at him and clearing her throat. He flicked his eyes up and looked at her through his lashes, nipping her gently and smirking up at her. She smacked his arm and pushed him away gently, giggling and pulling her strap back up as she stood, moving to her bed and laying across it shortways. He sat up beside her, his weight pushing the bed down with a forlorn familiarity of what used to be. It made her sad in a way that she couldn’t quite pin down. Annie draped her legs over his lap and closed her eyes, sighing happily and looking out the window to the orange sunrise outside. That was always something that she loved about living here, the upside were the sunrises and sunsets. Annie looked over at Mason, his face gentle and calm like it used to be, not pained and lonely like it is now. She missed him and his presence so badly, but she never really told him that, not even allowing herself to properly grieve (which seemed totally healthy). He pushed his hair out of his face and looked down at her,  
“You know what I miss the most?”  
“What’s that?”  
He laughed a little bit before answering her,  
“Fucking, just having coffee on the balcony of this shitty, cold apartment with you and Emory. I miss being alive like crazy. Hey, do me a favour?”  
Annie nodded and sat up to face him, smiling gently,  
“Of course.”  
Mason kissed her cheek and breathed deeply,  
“If I ever have to go away for one reason or another, I want you to go clean out my room at Michael’s place, okay? I don’t feel like myself anymore, I’m madder and I don’t want you to remember me like that. I know ou still have the spare key and all that, so I want you to do it. My parents don’t give a rat’s about my stuff so just go get it and keep it if you want. I’ve got some stuff for you that I’m sure you’d be happy to have.”  
Annie blinked a bit in surprise at him. He never talked about his place in Brooklyn except for a few times, and she definitely hadn’t been in his room. She began to protest but he stopped her,  
“There’s things in there that I don’t want just thrown out or hocked, you know? Will you do it for me?”  
Annie nodded and looked at her watch; nearly ten minutes already.  
“Anything else before I have to go?”  
Mason smiled and put his forehead against hers,  
“You’re amazing, you never forget that for me.”  
She smiled sadly as she felt his force pulling apart from hers and gave a nod.  
“I won’t.”  
But this was said to an empty room, Mason nowhere in sight now that his spirit was tired from the stretch. Annie felt a single tear fall as she rubbed the back of her neck, sniffling and biting her lip to stifle a sob. It always hurt when he went away, but it only felt worse when she remembered how in pain she knew he was. Souls weren’t meant to exist on this plane so it tore them apart essentially, making them shadows of what they used to be, reduced to the emotions and feelings they had before they died.  
“Annie, come down for some breakfast hon, you’re gonna want it.”  
Her aunt called from downstairs to her, a gentle reminder that she needed to recenter and calm down. Annie wiped her face off a bit and walked down the stairs, greeting her aunt fondly as she sat across from her at the small kitchen table. Emory looked over at her and slid her a plate of eggs and bacon, sitting slowly and watching her intently,  
“I thought I heard Mason up there with you this morning pretty early, must be my age finally getting to me.”  
Annie sighed quietly and ate a bit, thinking of a way to formulate the question she had rattling around in her head.  
“Auntie, I’m scared for him.”  
Her aunt nodded and gestured for her to go on.  
“I don’t want him to be this lost thing that I can’t help, I want to help him move on and be at peace, but I don’t know where to begin. I’ve done everything I can and I’ve read every book and article I can find, but nothing’s coming up roses. If I exorcise him, it’ll just be more painful than what he has to deal with now, and if I leave him be then it’ll be time eating away at him.”  
Emory sipped her drink and nodded slowly. She placed a hand over Annie’s and spoke gently,  
“Letting go is something the living and the dead have in common; we never want to let go. You’re going to have to let him go sooner or later and let him move on, it’s natural. The longer you leave this wound alone, the more inflamed it’s going to become, and it’ll be that much more hard to treat. If you have a demon, banish it. If you have a friend, let him go.”  
Annie stared at her for a long time before responding,  
“Then I need the car for a little bit.”  
Emory smiled and pointed to her plate,  
“Finish that first, you never eat enough.”  
Annie laughed and nodded, taking a few more bites and putting her plate by the sink, scooping the keys off the counter and kissing her aunt on the cheek. She grabbed her bag from its hook and skipped the stairs off the porch, sliding into the car and driving into the city central. She was heading for the library, a plan clear in her head as she pulled into the parking garage. The attendant at the desk smiled brightly at her and welcomed her kindly,  
“Good morning and welcome to the Brooklyn Public, can I be of any assistance today?”  
“Yes actually, could I see the obituaries from August of 1998 and get copies of them made?”  
The lady motioned for Annie to follow her to the reference section with the micro-viewers and pulled a newspaper from one of the rows. She handed it to Annie and pointed across the way to a pair of printers,  
“Here’s the one you’re after, the printers are across from the micro-viewers, and if you need anything else then you know where to find me.”  
Annie smiled and nodded, sitting at one of the desks and flipping through the pages of the old paper. OBITUARIES scrolled out along the top of one page and she scanned down the names until she found Mason’s. Mason Whele, twenty-two, death by accidental manslaughter. She knew exactly what happened that the papers would never print; Mason had been walking home on a particularly rainy night and took a wrong turn down a very wrong street, catching a stray bullet with the good side of his chest. No-one was arrested and there wasn’t even any inquiry into his death by the NYPD. The picture of him the paper had released was the one she took of him for graduation headshots, taken in her bedroom as shown by the tacky wallpaper in the background. She stood and walked to the printer, trying to ignore the prickles on the back of her neck that rose up without warning. Annie returned the paper to its spot and said goodbye to the attendant as she left, taking a moment to collect herself as she locked the doors on her car. Her hands were shaking as she white-knuckled the steering-wheel, the cold fear not leaving the back of her mind as she turned around in her seat to reverse, yelping as she saw Mason in the rearview mirror. Annie careened around and slammed her brake, her car squealing as she panted a bit. This was definitely getting out of hand quickly. Annie sped home as the sky clouded over above her, rain falling with quiet pitters on top of the soft roof of her car. She pulled into the drive and looked at Emory, standing outside the house and looking quietly shaken. Annie got out slowly and walked up the brick path, furrowing her brow at her aunt. Emory shook her head and merely pointed in through the screen door. Annie opened the door slowly and looked around, her eyes widening a bit as she saw the state of the apartment. There was glass and upturned furniture all over, the carpet torn up in places and the banister of the staircase scratched up. Emory followed behind her and put a hand on her shoulder,  
“I don’t know what you did, but he needs closure, and quickly.”  
Annie nodded and looked into the living room, the words “I was never gone” ripped into the wallpaper above the fireplace mantle. It chilled her that her Mason could be this evil. Not that it was his fault, deaths like his drew up unwarranted evil in spirits and made them into violent forces, much more different than they could’ve ever been while they were alive.   
“I think you should go over to Maxine’s for a while, I’ll give her a call once whatever this is blows over.”  
She held her bag tight to her as she climbed the stairs to her room, looking at the broken picture frames that littered the floor along the way. Again, cold prickles crawled up the back of her neck as she opened the door to her room, nothing touched or moved in any way. This fact gave her some sense of comfort that there was something in him that wanted to move on peacefully, but why destroy the rest of the house? Maybe it was the memories his spirit was trying to get rid of, but either way it did put a fear in her. She opened her bag and took the copies out, sitting down on her bed and waiting for night to fall. She knew that he would come to her eventually, all she had to do was wait on him.


	3. Nightfall on the Tenement

Annie was sitting on her bed, the window open as the rain poured down outside, thunder crashing and the power lines crackling as the storm peaked. It had been hours now. She gripped Mason’s picture in her hand, ignoring how her legs had gone to sleep and the pain in her back from sitting too long. She had prepped the room, cleansing it and setting out sage before she began anything within the realm of trying to send him onwards. Annie felt the air grow dense around her, cold and thick, as the lights dimmed low in her room. A crack of lightning sounded outside and the lights fizzled out, Mason’s outline appearing before the foot of her bed. She could see that he was disheveled and slightly dirtier than before, a twitch forming in his body as he moved towards her, talking lowly,  
“What do you have there?”  
Annie held his picture to her chest, pounding with her heartbeat as she looked for the right way to say what she knew,  
“Mason, you have to let go and move on. You’re a fragment of the man I used to know and hanging around is only making it that much worse, you have to move past your anger and find your way to what’s next.”  
His face darkened and the wind blew cold through her room.  
“I don’t want to move on, I want to see the guys who killed me dead, I want to stay here until they get what they deserve. I’m not leaving you.”  
Annie looked down at the picture and held it up for him to see, his eyebrows raising in anger as she continued,  
“MY Mason wouldn’t hurt me, he wouldn’t scare me like this. I know you May, and I love you, but I can’t see you stuck here any longer. It’s been seven years now, and I can’t let you linger here anymore, you have to move on now-”  
Mason clutched his head and whirled around, talking confusedly and gripping his hair,  
“Stop it, shut up.”  
Annie stood up and went around his front, going to the floor in front of him and putting his picture in his face.  
“This was the Mason I knew, not you. You will always be my Mason, but not if you stay like this.”  
He let out a wail and the floor beneath her seemed to shake, thunder crashing outside her window and the curtains swirling behind her.  
“You didn’t save me so what’s the point? I was torn apart then, I’m torn apart now, what does it matter?!”  
Her eyes widened as his voice grew to a scream level,  
“You never loved me, you never tried to love me. I was just someone you pushed your problems onto when they got too much to handle for your pathetic, miniscule existence. I could rip you apart right now, put your body all over this room and then let Emory find you. How does that sound, you waste?”  
Annie was crying silently, her compose unwavering as objects flew around her room, the curtains tearing from their rods and plastering themselves onto the wall behind her. She prayed quietly to herself that her plan would work as she reached forward and clutched his leg. The agony and anger that flowed into her was startling, causing her to cry out as she answered him,  
“No you won’t because I know you, you’d never do a thing to me that’d cause me harm.”  
Mason bared his teeth at her and yelled out, craning over her now,  
“You think I won’t? You just try me and watch-”  
She shot a hand up to his face and cupped his cheek in her palm, yelling back at him,  
“Mason, open your eyes.”  
He froze and everything went still, dust hanging in the air as Annie shut her eyes tightly, a memory forming in her head that she shared with him. They were just kids once, playing out in the street with Maxine and Emory watching over them as they sat on the tenement houses’ porch. The pair of them were laughing and picking on one another, happiest that they had ever been. She showed him the first real date they went on to the local chinese restaurant, hanging out at her place having coffee on the balcony, sitting in her room listening to records on her turntable, dancing like idiots after a couple drinks and sharing a kiss. His mouth fell open a bit as she looked up at him, surprised to see colour in his cheeks, his honey hair falling into his face as she took her hand away. He crumpled a bit and looked around the room, the mess evident, and he sat down in front of her on the floor. Annie held his hands in hers as they sat in the dead silence, the rain the only real sound they could perceive. Mason looked at her and opened his mouth, floundering with words, and finally giving up on them entirely. Annie let her tears fall freely as she spoke,  
“May, you’ve always been there for me, you’ve never not been my best friend. You mean everything to me, and when you died, a part of me went with you. I couldn’t let you go because I couldn’t think of a world with you not in it, where you weren’t going to be right beside me for it all. Then your soul started to deteriorate, and I knew it was time to think about sending you home. I want you to know that I forgive you for what you did and said because it wasn’t you, it was anger and sadness talking through you, making you something that I know you’re not. You’re getting a chance to move on, to be at peace, so take it. You’ll always be with me, I know you will, and it’s going to be okay. So, for me, let me let you go.”  
Mason looked at her and cried his own tears, a shaky breath echoing out of his mouth as his hands tightened around hers.  
“Will I forget you?”  
She shook her head and watched him closely.  
“I don’t think anyone can forget being happy.”  
He looked up at her and nodded slowly,  
“Since I’ve got some time, can you stay until I go?”  
Annie nodded and clambered into his lap, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into the crook of his neck, crying aloud now. Mason shook with sobs and he gripped her shirt, holding her tighter than she had ever been held before. He held her face in his hands and looked at her, her hands resting on top of his as he leaned his forehead against hers. Annie stroked his lips with her thumb and memorised the freckles on his face, his fingers tangling in her hair as he pulled her into a kiss. This is what she had forgotten; the warmth of his lips on hers, his hands around her, the urgency of having not enough time deepening it that much more. His tears mixed with hers as they pulled away, both of them sobbing quietly at the thoughts running through each of their minds. Mason kissed her softer this time, a thumb caressing her jawline and his fingers curled through hers in the other hand. Annie sighed gently and relaxed into his touch, pulling back and resting her head on his shoulder, looking out her window to the sunlight peeking over the skyline outside. She knew that meant he had to go soon, so she did the one thing that she could think of. Annie took him by the hand and led him out to the balcony, sitting down beside him on the bench and curling up close, his arms around her. Mason sighed deeply as he looked from the rising sun back to her, a smile breaking on his face as he spoke,  
“I’m not even scared anymore, I know that my life was good and you made it better just by being here with me. I can’t think of a better last morning than sitting here with you like we used to.”  
Annie smiled back at him and nodded, pressing a kiss to his cheek and resting her head under his chin.  
“I will miss you, but I will never forget you May. I promise you.”  
He nodded and looked over at her,  
“Neither will I, but remember my favour, will you?”  
She nodded and felt his chest swell a bit with happiness, gentle relaxation flowing around the pair of them. He kissed her gently and stood, smiling as he grew more and more faint, mouthing a last “I love you” as he faded against the backdrop of the city. Annie sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, walking back into her room and looking around at all the damage, paper and books scattered all over. She left the apartment and walked in the rain a few blocks down to Maxine’s apartment, ringing the bell. Her aunt answered readily and stared at her with expectation, receiving a broken trail of sobs as her reply. She gathered Annie into her arms and held her close, not daring to move her from her spot. She brushed the hair out of Annie’s eyes and smiled gently at her, nodding and holding her tightly.  
“I’m proud of you, so proud.”  
Annie closed her eyes and cried into her soft touch, letting exhaustion take her over.


	4. Never Really Gone

Annie had finished packing her car with the last of her belongings, ready for the move upstate. She had secured a new teaching position at a better school a few hours away, and she figured it was finally time to move on. Since the whole Mason thing a couple months ago, the apartment didn’t feel like home anymore to her, so she was going to seek out new and better things, like he would’ve encouraged her to do. Emory had pushed her to move, telling her that she’d be fine on her own since she’d been doing it for this long. She had helped Annie clean her room out and find a new place to move into, ensuring her that this is exactly what she wanted for her. So, here she was, keys out and bag in hand, ready to do one last thing before she left. Annie drove over to Mason’s old apartment, thrilled to see his old roommate was still living there, and knocked on the door hesitantly. Michael answered the door slowly, a look of surprise on his face as he recognised her.  
“Hey Annie, what’s going on?”  
“I’m just here for Mason’s old stuff. He said I should come and get it sometime since no-one else would.”  
Michael nodded and laughed a bit, opening the door for her to come in, showing her down a hall to his room.  
“He locked it and I never got the balls to go in there.”  
She pulled a key from her ring and opened it slowly, the door creaking and opening up into a packed up room, sighing quietly. Annie turned to him and smiled small,  
“Do you mind helping me load these? I’m moving upstate and I think I’d rather take all these with me.”  
Michael nodded and she handed him the spare key, nodding back at him with silent appreciation at his kindness. About an hour later, they had moved all the boxes into her vehicle and he waved her off as she drove away slowly, Brooklyn fading in her mirrors as she began the drive to Lewisboro. The drive gave her ample time to think about what happened when she let herself let Mason go. Of course, it wasn’t only her holding him there, he didn’t want to die so young and no-one would. The anger that built inside him was simply too much for her to see hurt him, so measures had to be taken in order for her and him both to be able to move on. She cried for what felt like days afterwards, really allowing her emotions to take over and express the grief to flow like it needed to for so long. Annie still hurt a bit when she said his name or saw something that reminded her of him, but it was less of a pain and more of an ache that she was now able to soothe. She had stopped taking her medications and it was getting more and more easy to just talk to the ghasts around her. Mason’s crossing over showed her that these souls just needed a little bit of guidance and a little bit of a nudge to make the final leap, and it made her happy knowing that she was doing some real good in the “lives” of the suffering. Annie was also pleasantly surprised that he found a way to communicate with her; dreams were a pretty solid conduit for spirit walking, and didn’t pose any threats to either of them like possession did. Mason told her things about the afterlife and she kept him up to speed on all the latest things back home. He promised her that once she went and got the things of his from his place that he had a few surprises for her waiting. Mason loved being cryptic, as most spirits do, but that was just his character. As she pulled into the subdivision, she parked her car in the drive of her new place and called the moving service to tell them she had made it, to which they said they’d send help to move her in and get her settled. Once unpacked, showered, and properly fed, Annie sat down on her bed and pulled a box of Mason’s things up with her. She had stowed all the boxed labelled CLOTHES except for a few which she scrounged through and found a couple very comfy shirts, one of which she was now wearing, and proceeded to tear off the masking tape holding the box closed. This one had been specifically labelled for her and it made a bit more sense as she examined the contents; movie stubs, picture albums, records, letters, and a few other odds and ends. There was a small notd written inside the flap of the box that read:  
“Dear Annie, there’s a gift in here somewhere that I never got up to giving you, it’s wrapped in green paper. Open it first. MW”  
She ran her fingers over the indentions in his writing and tipped the box to one side, a shred of green poking out from the bottom. Annie moved a couple movies and a stack of baseball cards to one side and picked up the small box, about 3x3 and held it tightly as she unwrapped it. He had written on the outside of the box as well:  
“Dear Annie, I’m sorry I’m always just too late for everything, but at least this can be yours now. MW”  
Annie pried the small box open to see a dainty diamond ring nestled in beside his seniour ring, smiling sadly and closing it back, pressing it to her chest. Her face lit up as she took them both out, sliding his ring that was much too big for her onto the chain around her neck and her own onto her right hand where it rested happily. She whispered out a quiet “Thank you” that was swallowed up by the room, but she knew he’d hear her. There was a stack of VHS tapes in the box as well labelled MUSIC, RAMBLING, AND MY GIRL that she took out and set by her TV stand. Mason was a film student, so it came as no surprise to her that he’d kept these to himself. She hooked up the player and inserted the first one, static whirring the tape to life. His face popped up and he smiled broadly, talking happily to the camera as she watched him. Annie knew he’d never really be gone, and that she was going to be okay too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FIN.


End file.
